42: Chapter 42 The Demon King's Breath, Feed Me a Sword

That nauseatingly sweet fragrance was like countless invisible maggots, frantically squirming out through the cracks in the rocks.

This was no spice; it was clearly a calling card delivered straight to the King of Hell.

In just three breaths...

A dense 'rustling' sound came from deep within the earth, like billions of ants gnawing on bones.

Immediately after, the Black Stone mineral vein, which had only been trembling slightly, suddenly exploded.

It wasn't flying debris, but a dark cloud looming over the city.

Tens of thousands of Thunder-Winged Bat Dragons surged like gushing oil, instantly breaking through the surface and blotting out the midday sun over Black Stone City.

Each of those low-tier Yao Beasts, with wingspans reaching two meters wide, was shrouded in violent arcs of lightning. They smelled the Beast-Attracting Incense, and even more, they smelled the blood of a city full of living people.

"Ah—!"

The market in the north of the city was the first to descend into a bloody Shura field.

A dozen Bat Dragons dove down, their sharp claws easily shredding wooden roofs. They snatched panicked civilians into the air before slamming them back down, turning them into puddles of gore.

The cries, screams, and the roar of collapsing buildings instantly turned this fortified border city into a boiling pot of blood.

However, colder than the Yao Beasts was the human heart.

"Retreat! All forces retreat!"

Near the city gates, command flags waved.

The Black Armored Army, originally stationed on the walls, retreated toward the rear as swiftly and orderly as a receding tide.

The heavy city gates swung wide—not to meet the enemy, but to flee for their lives.

That damned secret decree was very clear: abandon the city, leave the people, and lure the enemy.

Use the lives of the city's three hundred thousand citizens to sate these beasts, and while they were at it, bury that 'anomaly' who had just achieved a Golden Core Breakthrough here.

Ye Feng stood atop the ruins of the mineral vein, watching this scene with cold eyes.

At that moment, he felt no anger.

Anger is an emotion for the weak; the strong only know slaughter.

The Great Xia Imperial Family was rotten to the core, from top to bottom.

Since that old dog wanted the people of this city to die, then I will damn well make sure they live.

Not for any other reason than to spite the person sitting on the dragon throne.

"Whoosh—"

With a flicker of his body, Ye Feng vanished from the spot.

A second later, as if teleporting, he appeared at the very top of the tallest bell tower in the city center.

This was the highest point in the city and the inevitable path for all the diving Thunder-Winged Bat Dragons.

The tiles beneath his feet were crushed to powder.

Ye Feng's right hand gripped the air; he did not draw the broken sword on his back.

At this moment, he himself was the sharpest sword.

The Purple Lightning Golden Core inside him spun frantically. The energy from the Thunder Core he had just swallowed hadn't been fully digested yet, and now was the perfect time to vent it.

[Attribute Stripping, Reversal].

The violent lightning and fire elements belonging to those Yao Beasts, which had been drifting in the air, seemed to receive a royal summons and converged frantically toward the top of the bell tower.

"Condense."

Ye Feng's lips moved slightly, uttering a single, cold word.

Sizzle—!

Dozens of physical sword blades, condensed from pure lightning, materialized out of thin air behind him, their tips pointing outward and humming loudly.

Below, a massive Bat Dragon was clutching a terrified child, preparing to take flight.

"Go."

Ye Feng tapped his finger lightly.

Lightning swords poured down like rain.

There was no suspense.

That arrogant Bat Dragon didn't even have time to scream before three lightning swords simultaneously pierced its head, wings, and heart.

The corpse fell, and the child rolled onto the ground, staring blankly at the sky.

Then came the second, the third...

Ye Feng, atop the bell tower, seemed to transform into a precision meat grinder. Under the control of his Divine Thought, dozens of lightning swords accurately harvested the lives of every Bat Dragon that tried to approach the ground.

Black beast blood fell like rain, staining the blue bricks of the bell tower red.

But this was not enough.

The true threat wasn't the beasts in the sky, but the 'deserters' on the ground who wanted to run.

At the city gate.

Iron Madman sat on his warhorse, about to charge out of the gate with his personal guards.

He was a general, and obeying orders was his sacred duty.

Even if this order made his conscience uneasy, in the face of imperial power and life or death, what was a conscience worth?

Just as the horse's hooves were about to step out of the gate's shadow.

Bang!

The massive corpse of a Bat Dragon, accompanied by the whistling of the wind, slammed down precisely three feet in front of his horse.

The hard bluestone slabs were smashed to pieces, and foul-smelling beast blood splashed across Iron Madman's face.

The warhorse was startled, rearing up with a neigh.

Iron Madman clumsily reined in the horse, looking toward the bell tower with a mixture of shock and fury.

There, a lean figure stood with hands behind his back, clothes fluttering in the wind like a demon god.

"Iron Madman."

Ye Feng's voice wasn't loud, but bolstered by Golden Core spiritual power, it pierced clearly into the ears of every soldier, carrying an unquestionable pressure.

"Did I give you permission to open this city gate?"

Iron Madman gritted his teeth, his hand holding his blade trembling. "Ye Feng! This is His Majesty's decree! The monster tide is unstoppable. Do you want to drag the entire army down into the grave with you?"

"His Majesty's decree?"

Ye Feng sneered, his laugh filled with contempt.

"Then perk up your ears and listen well. From now on, in this Black Stone City, I call the shots."

"That secret decree is dog shit. You want to be a deserter? Fine."

Ye Feng's fingertip moved slightly, and a lightning sword suspended in the air suddenly changed direction, pointing straight at the center of Iron Madman's brow.

"If you dare lead your troops one step out of this gate, what leaves the city today won't be your person, but your head."

Dead silence.

Several thousand Black Armored soldiers froze in place, caught between a rock and a hard place.

Just then, a heart-palpitating, terrifying pressure erupted from deep within the mineral vein.

"Roar—!"

The Bat Dragon King, which had been circling in the sky, was finally enraged.

It was a giant beast with a wingspan of over ten meters, its entire body covered in dark red scales and eyes as crimson as lanterns.

It sensed the enticing Golden Core within Ye Feng's body—a temptation far more lethal than the Beast-Attracting Incense.

It opened its bloody maw, a scalp-numbing dark red glow swirling deep in its throat.

A bucket-thick blast of lightning breath surged out, carrying an aura of total destruction as it headed straight for the bell tower.

The air along its path was instantly incinerated, and the roofs of half a street block vaporized under the high temperature, leaving nothing behind.

This strike was comparable to the full-strength blow of a Middle Stage Golden Core Cultivator.

"Perfect!"

Ye Feng did not retreat; instead, he advanced.

He kicked off, soaring into the sky like an arrow from a bow, meeting the world-destroying lightning storm head-on.

That seemingly ragged broken sword in his hand lit up with a blinding gray light at this moment.

That was Chaos Sword Qi.

It could not only kill people but also sever techniques!

"Break for me!"

In mid-air, Ye Feng swung his sword three times in rapid succession.

The first strike severed the vanguard of the lightning storm; the second sliced through its core; the third surged upstream, heading straight for the Demon King's face.

Sizzle—

That seemingly unstoppable lightning breath was, in front of everyone's eyes, forcibly split down the middle by those three ripple-like waves of Sword Qi, turning into two halves of scattered sparks that exploded at Ye Feng's sides.

He was completely unharmed.

Ye Feng hovered in mid-air, treading on the Void Realm, looking down at the dumbfounded Loose Cultivators and soldiers below.

This was the perfect moment to establish his authority.

"Listen up, all of you!"

Ye Feng's voice was like a thunderclap, exploding over the entire city.

"Running means death. If you don't want to die by my sword, then pick up your weapons and fight these beasts!"

"These Thunder-Winged Bat Dragons are full of treasures. Monster cores, beast skins, dragon bones—picking up just one is enough to feed you for three years."

"The big ones, I'll kill. The small ones belong to you."

"All the spoils of war belong to the individual; I won't take a single cent!"

"Choose for yourselves: be a deserter and have your head chopped off by me, or take a gamble and make a fortune!"

A carrot in one hand, a stick in the other.

In this cultivation world where interests reigned supreme, things like national righteousness were nonsense; only solid Spirit Stones and resources could make people risk their lives.

In the originally chaotic streets, the Loose Cultivators who were about to flee with the army saw their expressions change.

They looked at the corpses of the Yao Beasts covering the ground; they were no longer a source of fear, but shiny Spirit Stones!

"Let's do it! Senior Ye eats the meat, we'll follow along for the soup!"

"Damn it, let's risk it! Kill one and we break even, kill two and it's pure profit!"

Someone shouted, and the originally collapsed defensive line miraculously stabilized.

Even the Black Armored soldiers, looking at Ye Feng's invincible figure, no longer felt their hands tremble as they gripped their spears. Their eyes held a trace of fanaticism.

Following such a powerhouse, perhaps they really could survive?

The Bat Dragon King in the air, seeing its strike miss and instead allowing this human to gather the people's hearts, felt a flash of human-like fury in its crimson beast pupils.

It snapped its wings shut and hovered high in the sky.

Layer upon layer of dark red scales began to vibrate frantically. Its originally thick neck swelled up eerily like an inflating ball, and the surrounding air began to show visible distortion ripples.